


It's getting harder to tread light

by puzzle_peace



Series: Crash (into you) [1]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Bisexual Sweet Pea (Riverdale), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Gay Sweet Pea (Riverdale), Getting Together, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, LGBTQ Themes, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-26 07:43:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20926613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puzzle_peace/pseuds/puzzle_peace
Summary: When he opens the door for Sweet Pea, he can’t help but let out a startled gasp.His shoulders are hunched, tense, making him look smaller despite his tall frame. His hair is dishevelled from its usual gelled order. His eyes are red-rimmed. Most worryingly, he has an angry purple bruise across his left cheekbone, a cut on the right side of his forehead and across the center of the bruise, and a split lip bleeding sluggishly."Oh Sweets..."---Or the Sweet Pea/OMC friends to lovers, H/C, getting together fic that I've always wanted.





	It's getting harder to tread light

**Author's Note:**

> I really love the concept of Sweet Pea/OMC where SP gets the love and stability he deserves, so I'm taking matters into my own hands. I have a ton of thoughts for this, so I hope to turn it into a series. Let me know if you like it or have any ideas :) This would be set around early tenth grade, whereas I assume at the beginning of Riverdale they would be in eleventh? I hope to write more about them in present time, so this is a bit of a back story fic!
> 
> Title is from the song "Crash" by Sara Diamond.

Alex is woken by the sound of his ringtone blasting through the quiet of his bedroom. Groaning, he reaches his hand blindly toward his bedside table, where he could hear his phone vibrating unpleasantly against the wood.

Realizing his efforts are fruitless, he rolls over with a sigh, squinting at the red numbers on his clock as he finally reaches his phone. _ 1:06am _ blinks back at him. He picks up the phone.

“...’ello?” he asks, wincing at how rough his voice sounds.

“Alex,” comes the familiar voice. Suddenly, Alex is much more awake.

“Sweets?” He’s immediately worried. Sweet Pea never calls him this late. “Is everything okay?”

There’s a pause on the line that does nothing to assuage his fears.

“...I-” his voice falters, and he hears Sweet Pea’s breath hitch on the other end, shaky on the exhale. “Sorry. It’s late, I probably woke you up. I shouldn’t have called.”

He sounds just a little bit frantic, and Alex can just picture him tugging at his hair like Sweet Pea always does when he’s upset.

“It’s okay. I don’t mind. Is something wrong?”

“I-” he cuts off, swallows, tries again. “I just- I can’t be at home right now.” His voice thins with emotion by the end, and Alex is at a loss - he’s never heard Sweet Pea sound like this before. “Can I come over?”

“Yeah. Yeah, of course. My parents are out for the night, I have the whole place to myself.”

“Okay, good. That’s - good. Thanks.” His voice sounds rough - with anger? With tears? With exhaustion? Alex couldn’t begin to guess. Whatever it is, it sounds all kinds of wrong.

“Where are you now, Sweets?” He asks, worried. “You’re not taking your bike, are you?”

“No, I- I’m almost there. Walking.”

Alex breathed out a silent sigh of relief. “Okay. See you soon. I’ll buzz you up when you get here, okay?”

“Okay,” he says, softer than Alex has ever heard him before. Of all the words that could be used to describe Sweet Pea, soft-spoken wasn’t one of them. The line hovers for a minute before the call ends. 

Alex pulls himself out of bed, tugging on a soft hoodie and sweatpants before padding to the small kitchen. He has no idea what to expect on the other side of the door. Sweet Pea is clearly upset, but about what?

He sets the hot water to boil. Tea, if nothing else, seems like a safe bet.

A few months ago, he never would have been expecting something like this to happen with him and Sweet Pea. Hell, he’s still surprised.

Sweet Pea and him had never really interacted. 

Well, they had always gone to school together, from Southside Elementary to Southside High, so of course they _ knew _ each other. The kind of knowing where you saw each other every day but might as well have been in completely different worlds: Sweet Pea with Toni Topaz and Fangs Fogarty, him with Decan Dinsmore and Tommy Tan. Sweet Pea at the table at the back left side of the cafeteria, Alex in the middle on the right. Two people, orbiting around the same space but paths never intersecting.

That is, until 10th Grade Chemistry, when they had been assigned mandatory lab partners and Alex had looked up at the board to see “ADAMS + ZHANG” in his teacher’s orderly scrawl. And then, that was that.

At first, it had been strictly business. Lab reports and pre-lab work, meetings in the library and after class. But slowly, they started to become real friends.

As it turns out, they have similar taste in music. They both play basketball. They both think their Chemistry teacher is secretly dating Ms. Peterson from Pre-Calc.

Before they know it, a debate about the merits of chocolate versus strawberry milkshake leads to them sitting across from each other in a booth at Pop’s, Alex watching the way Sweet Pea’s eyes crinkle at the corners when he laughs, the way the long lines of his neck pull taught when he throws his head back with it. It makes heat flutter in his chest, and he takes a sip of his strawberry shake to push it back down.

From then on they hang out all the time: the break between Chem and their next class, after school at Pop’s, the basketball court on weekends. Alex starts coming with Sweet Pea, Fangs, Toni and Joaquin to the quarry, to the drive in, to the rooftop of the local thrift shop.

And now Sweet Pea’s coming over at 1:30 in the morning. 

His thoughts are interrupted by the sound of the buzzer. 

OoOoOoOoOo 

When he opens the door for Sweet Pea, he can’t help but let out a startled gasp.

His shoulders are hunched, tense, making him look smaller despite his tall frame. His hair is dishevelled from its usual gelled order. His eyes are red-rimmed. Most worryingly, he has an angry purple bruise across his left cheekbone, a cut on the right side of his forehead and across the center of the bruise, and a split lip bleeding sluggishly.

As he stands in shock, he notices that fine tremors are running through Sweet Pea’s frame, making his hands shake tellingly before he folds them into fists. They make eye contact, and he thinks he sees Sweet Pea’s eyes get a little shinier in the dim hallway light. For a moment, everything stands still, as if they are both holding their breath, waiting for the other person to move first.

And then, Alex unfreezes. “Oh Sweets…” he says softly, stepping forward to wrap his arms around the taller boy. Sweet Pea tenses, and for a second, Alex worries that he made the wrong call. But then Sweet Pea practically falls into the hug, gripping Alex just as tightly, just holding on. Alex can feel Sweet Pea’s breath shudder against the bare skin of his collar bone, revealed from where his oversized sweater has slid down just so. Alex feels something inside him tremble, and he lets himself have it for a minute before he pulls back to face Sweet Pea.

Sweet Pea isn’t looking at him, instead staring at a piece of shitty laminate floor tile like it’s the most fascinating thing he’s ever seen. Alex grabs his hand and tugs him toward the couch, breathing a quiet sigh of relief when Sweet Pea allows himself to be led. He sits them both down on the navy blue suede couch before turning to Sweet Pea.

“Sweets, what happened?”

Sweet Pea’s gaze darts up to meet Alex’s eyes briefly before dropping down again, staring at his hands as they fidget restlessly in his lap.

“I, uh,” he stops, swallowing thickly, like he needs help getting the words out. “My Stepfather, he and my Mom had a fight. He was- I didn’t like the things that he was saying, you know, about her. I tried to get him to stop, but, ah, I just made things worse. We were both yelling, and he said some things, and it- escalated. He left and I-, I just couldn’t stay there anymore.”

Sweet Pea still isn’t looking at him.

Alex reaches out, stilling Sweet Pea’s hands by holding them between his own. Sweet Pea finally looks up and meets the other boy’s eyes, and Alex feels his heart ache at the way they shine with the beginnings of tears. Like this, Alex can feel Sweet Pea’s hands shaking, and he runs his thumb over them soothingly, back and forth.

“Did he do this to you?” Alex asks, already knowing the answer.

Sweet Pea doesn’t respond verbally, but the way he looks away and swallows thickly is answer enough.

Alex squeezes his hands lightly before letting go. “C’mon, let’s go to the kitchen. I think we have a first aid kit under the sink.”

OoOoOoOo

Sweet Pea winces, flinching away from the first dab of the disinfectant-soaked cloth to his swollen lip.

“Sorry,” Alex says, biting his lip. “I’m almost done.”

Sweet Pea’s lips turn up in the ghost of a smile. “S’ok.”

As Alex continues to dab at his bloody lip, he can’t help but ask: “Does this happen often?” He winces internally: is that a bad thing to ask?

Sweet Pea doesn’t seem to take offence, just shifts a little uncomfortably. “No, um, not often. Like, not all the time. Just, uh, sometimes my Mom drinks too much and, uh, says things that make him angry. Or sometimes I do. And once he’s angry, there’s no calming him down.”

“Sounds like a real asshole.”

Sweet Pea gives a little humourless laugh, wincing as the movement pulls at his split lip. “Yeah, tell me about it.”

Alex finishes dabbing at Sweet Pea’s lip, setting the cloth back down on the table beside them. He reaches out and grabs Sweet Pea’s hand between his own, squeezing softly.

“I’m sorry this happened. That’s really shitty. You don’t deserve this, not from anyone.” 

Their eyes meet, and he can see the emotion in Sweet Pea’s dark eyes. He feels so lucky, suddenly, that Sweet Pea lets him see him this way: cut open and raw, devoid of the surly bravado that he wears every day like his faded leather jacket.

Unsure of what gives him the courage, Alex raises his hand to Sweet Pea’s cheek, running his fingers softly over the raised bruise. He hears Sweet Pea’s breath catch.

It’s like time slows down and in this moment it’s just Alex and Sweet Pea, Alex’s stilled fingers cupping Sweet Pea’s cheek.

The air between them is charged, the energy buzzing between them silencing his rational thoughts. He’s too busy drowning in the emotion in Sweet Pea’s eyes, overwhelmed by the feelings rising up in his own chest, filling his whole body all the way to his fingertips resting on Sweet Pea’s cheek. It’s like everything he keeps hidden is pouring out of him, through his eyes and through his fingertips, seeping into Sweet Pea’s skin. Every breath he takes is like a whispered secret, filling the space between them. He feels like Sweet Pea can see all of him, like he’s been laid bare. But for once, he’s not afraid. Couldn’t be, even if wanted to. In this moment it’s only Sweet Pea and him and his hand on his cheek and the look in his eyes, and suddenly Alex is so, so gone.

He sees Sweet Pea’s eyes drop to his lips, feels his breath catch, hears Sweet Pea breathe his name in a soft gasp, _ Alex _, but he’s already leaning in.

Their lips meet, and it’s like everything slots into place.

Sweet Pea falls into it, eyes fluttering closed as he returns the kiss just as intensely. His mouth tastes like blood and disinfectant, but Alex still thinks it’s the best he’s ever had. The kiss feels like comfort and desire, a mixture of_ sweet _ and _ hot-as-fuck _ that shivers down his spine as he pulls away, breathing hard.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time,” Alex says, surprised at how husky his voice sounds.

“Me too,” Sweet Pea says. “I just didn’t know that I could.”

Alex smiles - he can’t help it. “I think we fucked up your lip again.” 

Sweet Pea laughs, a real smile crinkling the corners of his eyes for the first time that night. “Yeah,” he says, squeezing Alex’s hand still trapped in his own. “It was worth it though.”

“Do you want to stay here tonight?” Alex asks, and then clarifies quickly. “Just to sleep, I mean. I’ll make tea.”

“Yeah,” Sweet Pea smiles, almost shy in a way that he never is. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

And the rest, they say, is history.

**Author's Note:**

> Come chat with me on [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard/blog/puzzle-peace)!


End file.
